The Supreme Court won't hear a challenge to a 70-year old law that bans government contractors from donating money to federal candidates or political parties.
 
The justices on Tuesday let stand a lower court ruling that said the ban is a reasonable way of addressing the government's interest in preventing political corruption.

Congress outlawed political contributions by federal contractors largely in response to a New Deal-era scandal involving Democratic Party operatives and contractors.

Challengers said the ban is unnecessary because career government bureaucrats decide who gets government contracts, not elected officials. The federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., upheld the law.

The ban applies only to individual contractors and not to political action committees of corporate contractors, or to a corporation's officers and shareholders.